Armed with razor blade and a fiendish wit, Winston Smith's modus
operandi since the 1970's has been to kidnap "innocent" images from
the pages of vintage magazines and then to diabolically glue them
into compromising or politically revealing positions in his surreal
collage landscapes. "Truly subversive artwork" wrote the SF Weekly
in a review of Smith's first book Act Like Nothing's Wrong. "Perhaps
the most vibrant collage maestro since Max Ernst," wrote popular
underground artist Frank Kozik, who goes on to credit Winston with
being "single-handedly responsible for an entire generationıs
graphic style."

Winston first came to infamy by way of his hard
hitting political shock piece, Idol - a "bowling trophy style" Jesus
nailed to a cross of dollars that was used for the Dead Kennedys'
album In God We Trust, Inc. That album, which was subsequently
banned in England and condemned by the American Religious Right,
landed Smith and Dead Kennedys a permanent spot in the punk culture
hall of shame.

Two decades down the line, Winston's style continues
to have political punch, but has also developed an almost classical
surrealism. His recent album cover for Tijuana No!'s - Contra
Revolucion Avenue has been called the collage equivalent of a cross
between Picasso's "Guernica" and the social realism of a Diego
Rivera WPA-era mural. Another fine example of his new style is
Apocalypse Wow!, a full page spread commissioned by SPIN magazine
that depicts a swirling end-of-the-world populated with a
mind-blowing array of whimsical images from sword carrying angels to
flying poodles.

Smith, once known only to DK fans and the punk
underground cognoscenti, has been gaining popularity in mainstream
culture. He's had one-man shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New
York, London and Rome. His debut book, Act Like Nothing's Wrong,
published in 1994 by Last Gasp of San Francisco was favorably
reviewed a wide variety of regional and national magazines. His
eighteen month sojourn as illustrator for SPIN magazine's Topspin
political page (1995-96) further brought his work to national
attention as did his award for Best Cover Illustration from the
Association of Alternative Newsweeklies in 1997. And on the musical
front, his bizarre Insomniac alum cover for the popular neo-punk
band Green Day was indicated as a favorite in a 1996 readers poll in
Rolling Stone Magazine. The growing demand for Winston's humorous
and controversial collage illustrations has prompted the release of
his second book, Artcrime, and the production of his first-ever
series of collectible archival prints. The jumbo scale and fine
quality of this new print series hugely expands the already powerful
visual impact of Winstonıs work. Intricate collages, formerly seen
only in miniature on CD covers or in newsprint, take on a whole new
life when printed on archival water color paper and blown up to 3' x
4'. We have arrived at the threshold of the twenty first century.
It's time to call off the art police. The work of mischievous
art-criminal Winston Smith is finally being brought to full color
justice.